Battery terminal clamp



Jan. 10, 1956 w. E. NELSON 2,730,691

BATTERY TERMINAL CLAMP Filed March 15, 1954 72-7. 7 L H Z2 8 f 25 24 a 4?J 'll /Z 9 /9 INVENTOR z? 27 WENG Z5077,

ATTORNEY United States Patent BATTERY TERNIINAL CLAMP Willard E. Nelson, Watervliet, Mich. "Application March 15, 1954, Serial No. 416,253 i 1 Claim. (or. 339-239 3 invention relates to a novel clamp for connecting a conductor cable to a terminal or post of a battery and has for its primary object to provide a clamp of extremely simple construction which may be quickly moved into clamping engagement with aterminal or post of a storage battery and as readily released from clamping engagement therewith.

Another object of the invention is to provide a post or terminalclamp which may be readily released even after the accumulation of corrosion from the battery on the clamp.

Apfurth er objectrof the invention is to provide a terminal clamp which will be drawn downwardly relatively to a battery post or terminal and applied thereto and which will be displaced upwardly relatively to the post or terminal when released therefrom to thereby eliminate the need for using a terminal puller or similar tool for dislodging the clamp from the battery post.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide a battery terminal clamp which will not damage the battery or battery post in removing the clamp therefrom.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the following description of the drawing, illustrating a presently preferred embodiment thereof, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view showing the clamp applied to a storage battery post or terminal;

Figure 2 is a sectional view partly in top plan thereof, taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 22 of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a vertical sectional view taken substantially along a plane as indicated by the line 33 of Figure 2, and

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 but showing the clamp secured to the post or terminal.

Referring more specifically to the drawing, the novel post or terminal clamp in its entirety and comprising the invention is designated generally 6 and includes an elongated clamp body, designated generally 7, formed of any suitable metal which is a good conductor of electricity. One end of the body 7 is provided with an outwardly opening bore or recess, not shown, forming a socket 8 for receiving an end of a battery conductor cable 9, formed of an electrical conducting material, which end is suitably secured in a conventional manner as by soldering, not shown, in the socket 8.

The body member 7 includes an intermediate portion defining a post or terminal engaging clamp 10 in the form of a split sleeve. The other end of the body 7 comprises spaced substantially parallel arms 11 and 12 which form integral extensions of the clamp 7 and which are disposed on opposite sides of the opening thereof. The arms 11 and 12 extend from the clamp 10in the opposite direction to the socket 8. The clamp body -7 as previously described is of substantially conventional construction.

The arm 11 is provided with a threaded opening or bore 13 which aligns with a larger unthreaded bore 14 of the arm 12.

2,730,691 Patented Jan. 10, 1956 shown, the battery terminal clamp 6 is provided with a bolt- 15 the shank portion of which includes a threaded distal end part 16 and unthreaded part 17 extending between the threaded part 16 and the head 18 of the bolt. The unthreaded shank portion 17 is provided with a fixed collar 19 which is spaced from the threaded portion 16 and from the head 18, as seen in Figure 2. The bolt shank carries a disk 20 which is provided with an eccentrically disposed opening 21 which is of sutficient size to permit both shank portions 16 and 17 to be inserted therethrough.

To assemble the bolt 15 with the arms 11 and 12 and with the disk 20, said disk is positioned between the arms 11 and 12 after which the threaded end 16 of the bolt is inserted through the arm opening 14 and thence through the disk opening 21. The bolt end 16 is. then threaded through the threaded arm bore 13 until the disk 20 is in engagement with a part of the shank portion 17 located adjacent the threaded portion 16. The disk 20 is also posi-' tioned between and spaced from the arms 11 and 12 and .the collar 19 is disposed in slightly spaced relationship disk and diametrically through the shank portion 17.

The bolt 15 is turned to initially position the disk 20 so that the peripheral portion 23 thereof which is located remote from its bore 21 will be disposed remote from the terminal or post engaging sleeve 10, and so that the peripheral portion 24, which is located adjacent the bore 21 will be disposed between said bore and the bore 25 of the sleeve 10. With the disk 20 thus disposed, as seen in Figures 2 and 3, the peripheral portion 24 will be spaced from the bore 25 of the terminal or post clamping sleeve 10, so that said sleeve may be passed over a post or terminal 26, rising from a portion of a storage battery 27, to position the terminal clamp 6 on the battery post 26, as illustrated in Figure 3. Any suitable tool, not shown, may then be engaged with the bolt head 18 for turning the bolt 15 clockwise as seen in Figure 3 to cause the disk 20 to turn clockwise from its position of Figure 3 to its position of Figure 4. It will be readily apparent that during this movement of the disk 20, its peripheral portion 23 will move downwardly and inwardly with respect to the clamp sleeve 10 and thence inwardly and upwardly. As said peripheral portion 23 moves inwardly and upwardly it will enter the bore 25 and engage a portion of the post or terminal 26 for initially displacing the clamp body 7 downwardly on the post 26 and for simultaneously and thereafter displacing the clamp body 7 from left to right of the drawing to effectively clamp the post or terminal 26 in the clamping sleeve 10 between the disk portion 23 and the part of the sleeve 10 disposed remote and opposite thereto. Thus, the disk 20 forms an eccentric wedge for cooperation with the clamp sleeve 10 for clamping a terminal or post in the clamp sleeve.

During this clockwise rotation of the disk 20, as previously described, the threaded bolt portion 16 will be advanced through the threaded bore 13 and the collar 19 will be advanced toward the outer side of the arm 12 to prevent spreading of the arms and to additionally tend to draw said arms together for restricting the clamping sleeve bore 25 to further clamp the terminal or post 26 therein.

When it is desired to disengage the terminal clamp 6 from the post 26, the bolt 15 and disk 20 are turned in the opposite direction or counterclockwise from their positions of Figure 4 back to their positions of Figure 3. During the initial stage of this movement of the disk 20, as the peripheral portion 23 moves downwardly and while still in engagement with the post or terminal 26, it will tend to displace the clamp body 7 upwardly 01.1.01, relatively to. the post 26 before moving out of contact with the post. At the same time, the collar 19 will move away from the arm 12 to allowa slight spreading of the arms 11 and 12 so that when-the. disk portion 24 is located adjacent the sleeve 10', as, seen in Figures 2 and 3, the terminal clamp 6 will be completely released and may be readily removed from the post or terminal 26 without the use of a terminal puller or similar tool.

' Thus it will be apparent that a battery cable terminal clamp of extremely simple construction has been provided which may be quickly and easily secured to or released from a battery post or terminal and which may be removed without difliculty even when a battery post has become corroded.

Various modifications and changes are contemplated and may obviously be resorted to, without departing from the spirit orscope of the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claim.

I claim as. my invention:

In combination with a split clamping sleeve having a bore for engaging a battery post or terminal and having substantially parallel arms projecting from the sleeve on opposite sides of the sleeve gap, said arms having aligned openings, one of said openings being threaded, the other opening being unthreaded and larger than the threaded opening, an actuator comprising a bolt shank having a threaded portion threadedly engaging the threaded opening and, an unthreaded portion extending loosely through the unthreaded, opening, an eccentric wedge comprising a disk eccentrically fixed on said bolt, shank and loosely disposed between said arms and including a peripheral portion disposed a greater distance from the axis of the bolt than the distance between the bolt axis and an adjacent portion of the sleeve bore, said peripheral portion being movable by rotation of the bolt into the sleeve bore for clamping a battery post or terminal between said eccentric wedge and a portion of the clamping sleeve, and an enlargement fixed to the unthreaded bolt shank portion and disposed on the outer side of said arm having the unthreaded opening and positioned to cooperate with the bolt shank and said arms to adjust the size of the sleeve bore to accommodate battery posts and terminals of different cross sectional sizes, and said enlargement being advanced against the outer side of said last mentioned arm to prevent spreading of the arms when the bolt shank is turned to move the eccentric wedge into clamping relationship with said clamping sleeve portion and for advancing the threaded bolt shank portion outwardly through the threaded opening of the other arm.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,865,681 Dobbins July 5, 1932 1,925,507 Spence Sept. 5, 1933 1,961,113. Taylor May 29, 1934 2,140,843 McGinnis Dec. 20, 1938 2,247,452 Seils July 1, 1941 2,271,692 Hewel Feb. 3, 1942 

